Documentary month Day 10 film10 End of the Century The story of the Ramones

End of the Century The Story of the Ramones
2005
Rhino DVD

I have been a huge fan of the Ramones for over 30 years now. And was lucky enough to see them 3 times before they broke up. Well a few years back 2 different documentaries about the band came out. The first one I saw was "Ramones:Raw" which was made up of behind the scenes footage Marky "Monkey boy" Ramone filmed during the years he was touring with the band. I found this one very disappointing and kind of worthless. Then there is End of the Century. Which is almost perfect.

We get a great history of how and why the band was formed. Turns out most of the core members all grew up together and formed the band cause well they really had nothing else to do. There is plenty of interviews with people who knew the guys before they became famous. And we get to know the Ramone's real personalities.

The next section of the DVD deals with them starting to tour and the recording of their first album. And WOW this section had info that I had never heard before. Which is strange cause I have done a pile of research of the Ramones.

Next up we get all kinds of interviews with the surviving members. Sadly before this was done Joey had died. But at least we got interviews with Johnny and Dee Dee. Now I had always heard that Johnny is kind of a right wing asshole,and his interviews proves this. Dee Dee sounds and looks like a drugged out Carol Channing. Which always makes me laugh.

One part I really enjoyed is the interviews with all the people that were part of the band for short periods of time. Like Richie,Elvis and CJ. The interview with Richie confirms the stories I have always heard about why he left the band. It seems he wasn't getting his fair share of the money they made off the t-shirt sales. This really sucks,cause he was IMHO the best drummer they ever had.

The DVD has a plethora of extras. Mostly parts of interviews that got cut from the final film. But the best part is a part where Tommy Ramone sits down and tells us who wrote what on the first 3 albums. End of the Century The Story of the Ramones gets an A.